Giants Acquire Engelb Vielma

The Giants have acquired infielder Engelb Vielma from the Pirates, John Dreker of Pirates Prospects reports on Twitter. Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review first tweeted that Vielma was on the move; he had been designated for assignment recently.

This’ll be Vielma’s second stop in San Francisco — on paper, at least. He is one of several names that has already bounced from roster to roster via minor trades and the waiver wire this winter, as typically occurs for players that are on the margins of 40-man roster viability. For Vielma, this is the fourth time he has changed hands since September.

Whether the 23-year-old will end up sticking with the Giants organization remains to be seen. The club could still expose him to waivers again in an attempt to stash him as a non-roster player. Even if he makes it into camp on the 40-man, Vielma will no doubt need to show he’s worthy of continuing to occupy a roster spot.

Known as a high-end defender who can handle shortstop, Vielma has not yet demonstrated that he’ll hit much when he ultimately reaches the game’s highest level. He was placed on the Twins’ 40-man to protect him from the Rule 5 draft in advance of the 2017 season, but went on to slash just .229/.273/.280 in 455 total plate appearances split between Double-A and Triple-A.

League Average is not really accurate. The average ops was about .750 and Cutch put up an .849 last season.
He was about average in 2016 (.766) but even at 30, I would expect him to hover around .790-.850 for the next 3-4 years barring injury.
His speed may not hold up, but he has the whole package offensively- contact/speed/power/discipline which leads me to believe that he may be able to post OPS’s from .770-.800 longer than many would expect.

Cutch is a league average player. He isn’t worth anything of substance at this point in his career. Crick good be a quality reliever too. If that happens that’s more than I would have given up for McCutcheon.

True, the Giants were a “last place team” last year, but they projected to be considerably better in 2018 just by bringing back the same crew. They were also the easiest team to improve in all of baseball, as they had a bunch of good players with a few gaping black holes (basically replacement level at 3B and the OF).

In replacing one hole with Longoria, they became a roughly .500 team on paper. In replacing one of the other holes with Cutch, they’re now fringe contenders. If they can fill yet one more with a legit CF, they’re probably favorites for a wild card spot.

They were not a last place team if all the bad things didn’t happen.. If Bum didn’t fall of the dirt bike and was gone most of the year. If Cueto didn’t have a blister problem most of the year, if Melancon didn’t miss pretty much the entire year and if Crawford didn’t have a family tragedy at the very beginning of the year that thru him way off znc pretty much everyone else had way below their average years except for Posey. Everyone has injuries but if the players just were able to perform average they would have probably been around .500. That is why they are adding a couple of veterans hoping that the entire team can just have average or better years which might lead to a decent year. It might not work but with the talent they have all around age 30 they had to try. So anyone that thinks this is just a typical crap team didn’t follow them at all. They actually have as much or even better talent going into the year then they did in the 3 World Series Titles. Question is do they put it together.

Why are they not? The Dodgers Rockies and Dbacks are all better than them. Padres young players showed more guts than the Giants did last season. In fact they beat them badly in the season series. So they need to prove thats not who they are to be considered a wild card contender. Injuries happen across baseball. Dodgers lost Kershaw for well over a month 2 straight years now and had no problems getting over it. Rich Hill had blister problems. These are all excuses that dont make up for their poor play

You are talking about a core that is around 30 which is not all that old that won three world series titles. Get back to me when any of the Dodgers, Rockies or Dbacks win 3 Titles and we can talk about which players are better. Problem is unless you are very young we will all probably be dead before any of them win 3. So if Giants don’t succeed they will find a way to build the team up quickly.

Exactly. All of these keyboard general managers who think they have it all figured out are good for nothing but a laugh. So the Padres “beat them badly” in the season series. The Giants lead overall 443 to 390 in their history playing the Padres. “Yay”. Call us back when any of those teams win a title.

This is why no one can take Giants fans seriously. You think they better players because 4 years ago they won the world series? Hunter Pence was an all star level player then. Now he is below replacement level. Rockies Dbacks and Dodgers were all playoff teams last year but no your right, 2014 is more relevant to 2018. Things change fast. And no one is talking about the all time series between the Padres and Giants.

Take Giants fans seriously? How obnoxious. Sure this team might play .500 baseball, but what should Giants fans do? Complain and cry because our team is actually trying to win?

Regarding Pence, four years ago the Giants relied on Pence in the middle of the lineup and this year they are going to bat him 7th or 8th (and likely platoon). Four years ago the Giants had different 3rd basemen, starting pitchers, center fielders, right fielders, etc. The core, however, is relatively the same. Do us Giants fans think we’ll beat the Dodgers? Heck no, but we all laugh like hyenas when the Fodgers lose in the playoffs and World Series. This team has bounced back from a bad season in 2013 to win the trophy, and I think they can compete with the Rockies and Dbacks if everyone plays to normal expectations. Right now they are projected as the 5th best team in the NL.

You all thinking the Pirates got the better end of the Cutch trade? The Giants gave up very little for an above-average right fielder who can hit at the top or middle of the lineup, which replaces the absolute nothingness they had last year. It might be nothing to you but to us fans it’s a blessing. The Pirates even threw in $2.5 million. If this season blows up he’s trade bait at the deadline.

The Giants, between one of their corner spots and 3B, last year, got -3.3 WAR. Between McCutchen and Longoria, they are projected at 5.7 WAR. If the two match their projections, that’s an improvement of NINE wins above replacement.

A nine win improvement between two positions is every bit “moving the needle.”

Does it make them a contender? We’ll see. Consider the improvement from those two spots, plus at least a few bounce back seasons from multiple guys, and it’s not absurd to suggest 10-20 more wins in 2018.

Check their record last year when they scored 5+ runs — near the top of the league. Cutch (and Longo) add will add runs, and despite what it seemed (see: bullpen), lack of runs was the biggest reason for last year’s 98-loss campaign.

A player who hit 28 HR and 85 RBI on a bad team,if the Yankees had room I would love to have him,he was the face of your team and you send him away,that’s why the pirates will always be a bad franchise,it will be a long time before they win the division let alone the WS.

I’m sorry but your whole cutch is a league average player argument is just wrong he was great last year and would be even better in a corner Outfield situation. that said one year of control did hurt his value and he wasn’t exactly cheep.

he could end up on the 40 man because they don’t have any prospects to protect. They have only 1 quality prospect and he is not eligible for the 40 man. If they have space for Sandoval they have space for anyone.

If you know anything about the Giants….you wouldn’t be dribbling crap from your mouth.
A solid team that had a bad year last year. Probably one of the best infield’s in baseball and a solid pitching staff that had a down year. A remake of the outfield is definitely in order. You can babble all you want about the three WS wins…..but, they did it…and no other team has. Houston looks like a solid candidate to succeed in multiple WS wins.

whats the kids story about the kid who sees a leak in a dam and sticks his finger in the hole to stop the leak, and another leak starts and then sticks another finger in the hole to stop the leak, and then another leak starts? The front office is the kid. The millions of gallons of water that is going to flood the town is reality.